Sound design and Sound Mix for Reading Cinemas
Creating a sonic brand is essential for any business that wants to be recognized and remembered. Unlike traditional visual branding, which relies on colors, shapes, and images, sonic branding relies on sound to create an identity. A well-designed sonic brand will use music and sound effects to reinforce the company’s message and values. Reading Cinemas is a great example of a business that has used sound design to create a unique and memorable brand. The company’s theme music is instantly recognizable, and the sound effects used in trailers and commercials help to create a sense of anticipation and excitement. By using sound design to create a strong sonic brand, Reading cinemas has helped to set itself apart from the competition.
Reading Cinemas is a group of cinema chains operating in the United States, New Zealand and Australia under American parent company Reading International.
In the late 1980s, through his holding company the Craig Corporation, Los Angeles-based lawyer James Cotter acquired the Reading Company, an American former railway company that held a portfolio of real estate properties after it sold its railroad assets and rolling stock in 1976. Through the rest of the 1990s, Cotter acquired, developed, and operated real estate properties, focusing on cinema exhibitors and live theatre operators. Most of the company’s holdings by this time were located far beyond the company’s historical native ground of Pennsylvania’s coal mines.
Reading entered Australia in 1995 and New Zealand in 1997, developing a chain of multiplex cinemas that operated under the Reading banner and exhibited mainstream films. In the United States, Reading pursued a more offbeat business direction, acquiring an art-house theatre at the historic Cable Building in New York City in 1996 that operated under the name Angelika Film Center. The company also acquired and expanded a chain of multiplex cinemas throughout the island of Puerto Rico.[1]
By 1996 Cotter reorganized the company as Reading Entertainment and on December 31, 2001 both Reading Entertainment and Craig Corporation merged into and with Citadel Holding Corporation, another Cotter company.[3]
James Cotter died in August, 2014, leaving his investment in the company in trusts that have been subjected to multiple years of litigation between his designated successor CEO, his son James Jr., and his daughters (Jr.’s sisters), Ellen and Margaret. In 2015, James Jr. was ousted by his sisters and a majority of the board of Reading International and Ellen Cotter subsequently was named CEO.[4]
